Columnists - The Durango Herald

Anti-Semitism is like cancer in the Islamic world

NEW YORK – In recent weeks, attention has focused on two freshman Democratic members of Congress, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, both of whom are Muslim and have made critical statements abou...

DATE: Feb 21, 2019 | CATEGORY: Fareed Zakaria

Five immunity boosters to add to your diet

Sometimes in the winter it feels like coughing, scratchy throats and runny noses are just a part of daily life. I don’t give financial advice, but my goal is to share how the foods you eat ...

DATE: Feb 20, 2019 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

Grandma caught in middle of feud

DEAR ABBY: I’m close to 70 and have three grown children. I’ve been a widow for 15 years. My oldest son, age 45, has pretty much cut himself off from our fairly close family. His reason:...

DATE: Feb 19, 2019 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

How the American left fell in love with elitism

Over the past generation, global capitalism has produced the greatest reduction in human poverty in history. Over the past 10 years, American capitalism has produced 20 million ne...

DATE: Feb 19, 2019 | CATEGORY: David Brooks

How words become weapons, forms of cowardice

You could always slight the very rich by calling them moneybags, robber barons, fat cats or plutocrats. Billionaire was a neutral word, grounded in math: Such a person could spend...

DATE: Feb 18, 2019 | CATEGORY: David Leonhardt

Roads could be fixed with tax on trikes, skateboards

What does the upcoming sales-tax hike really mean? It’s supposed to be for road repairs. Voters rightly didn’t trust the City Council in the last election, so should we ever? Are we voting f...

DATE: Feb 18, 2019 | CATEGORY: Action Line

New mom can’t let go of tragic story

DEAR ABBY: I recently had a baby, and I have been diagnosed as having postpartum depression. I have tried all of the prescribed medications but took myself off them because of the side e...

DATE: Feb 18, 2019 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Iran has languished in darkness for 40 long years

From its beginning 40 years ago this week, the Islamic Republic of Iran has enjoyed the generous benefit of the doubt from credulous observers in the West. History hasn’t been kin...

DATE: Feb 17, 2019 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Land conservation overcomes congressional gridlock

Fans of Utah’s spectacular redrock country can savor congressional action this week that advanced protections for a million acres of the incomparable San Rafael Swell, and one of the Colorad...

DATE: Feb 17, 2019 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Don’t get caught in the travel chaos of spring break

It’s not too early to start thinking about spring break. The annual rite for sun worshipers, which runs from February to mid-April, isn’t just a stampede toward warmer weather. Ma...

DATE: Feb 16, 2019 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Abolish billionaires

Eliminating excessive wealth may be an idea<br/>whose time has come for America

DATE: Feb 16, 2019 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Our bill will keep Colorado waters clean

Growing up, I learned quickly to clean up my room. Or else. It wasn’t always easy. Or pleasant. But I’d made a promise to my parents, and I begrudgingly kept it. And th...

DATE: Feb 16, 2019 | CATEGORY: From the State House

Photos: Durango High School boys golf competes at stateDemons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Demons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Photos: Cowboy Gathering Social and Parade

Photos: High County Cattle Auction

High Country Cattle Auction brings top-notch stock and country charm to Southwest ColoradoFamily run, generational business dates back to 1940s

BREEN – The family-owned and operated High Country Cattle Auction is “in the bones” of the Cugnini family, said third-generation owner Chris Cugnini. The business was founded by Chris’ grandfather, Pat Cugnini, in the 1940s. Pat then passed the business down to his son, Duane Cugnini, who then turned the business over to daughters, Becky Hawkins and Chris Cugnini, whose daughters plan to take over the family business one day. The auction, which takes place once or twice a month from April to January at 13062 La Plata Highway (Colorado Highway 140) near Breen, attracts ranchers, farmers and those in the cattle industry from far and wide.

Former Durango resident Steve Greenburg has been attending the High Country Cattle auction for more than 40 years, and continues to travel to Breen all the way from Arizona, where he now lives. He attended the September auction last week, where around 1,200 animals were up for sale. Greenburg said effective bidding takes concentration and a practiced hand. “You want to make sure you don’t pay too much,” he said. “And if you do, you want to buy the business.” Amber Belvin, employee of 15 years and Chris’ operations “sidekick,” said bidders are most often looking for signs of good health in an animal, like a plump, filled-out body. If bidding on a herd, a look of uniformity among the animals is key to a good purchase, she said.

Despite Greenburg already having a handful of filled out bidding cards marking the cattle he had won within an hour of the Sept. 23 auction, he said the day was young. One sale day last year culminated in Greenburg taking home 22 semi-trucks worth of cattle, he said. Chris said Greenburg is one of the auction’s longest-term and most generous supporters. “(Greenburg) pays top-dollar,” Chris said. “And (that) makes me feel good, because we’re giving back to (the sellers). I know these people around here, and they’re the hardest working people on the planet. If I can get them 10 or 20 cents more per pound, then that makes us happy.”

Cattle auction prices have gone up in recent years, both at High Country and nationally, Chris said. This year, animals are going for $2,500 to $3,000 a head – double and triple the average prices from last year. The increase, Chris said, is in part because of a screw worm making the rounds in cattle in Mexico, which has lowered the number of cattle coming in from the south, along with people subdividing and selling cattle branches, and local cattle herd numbers diminishing, which has increased demand.

Chris called the price increase “good and bad.” “It’s great if you’re a seller, because there’s prices that you’ve never seen before,” she said. “Older men come in, (and they) can’t believe the prices. Some of them do this for a living, and they count on that, so they’re so happy.” Belvin said some smaller farmers opt to buy less cattle during price surges like this, but echoed Chris’ sentiment about sellers being ecstatic about the unprecedented profit.

Local cattle farmer Lawrence Martinez entered 59 steers and 95 heifers in the auction Tuesday. Martinez has been involved in the High Country Cattle Auction “pretty much forever,” but recent years have been especially fruitful for sales, he said. “These last few years, we’ve been coming here to sell, because this is the place to go,” he said. “I wouldn’t sell anywhere else. (The market here has) been so good.”The auction’s community roots and generational touch doesn’t stop at the Cugnini family: Shane Hatch, the auctioneer, took over the job after his father’s death, Belvin said.

The auction serves as an opportunity for community members to get together and bond, Belvin said. “When we do have an auction, it’s a great place where local farmers and ranchers can get together and talk,” she said. “They come to the cafe, and they talk about the hay, and the drought situation, and I think it’s a good connecting point.” Chris and Belvin both expressed feeling glad the auction can supply so much generational value to the local farming and ranching community. “I mean, what other business can you think of around here that’s the same, right?” Belvin said. “We’re fair, and we’re very meticulous at our jobs. We take it very seriously, because this is (some peoples’) livelihood.”

For the Cugninis – and long-term employees like Belvin, who have become an honorary part of the close-knit High Country Cattle Auction family – the heart of the business aligns with the heart of the local farming and ranching community. “We’re just good, hard working people – Americans – that want to make a good living, and live off this great land,” Belvin said. epond@durangoherald.com

Family run, generational business dates back to 1940s